The advent of the digital age makes people eager to duplicate the content of a DVD into digital formats for easy storage. Most people would like to convert DVD to MP4, because MP4 has good compatibility and small file size, making it convenient to transfer and share.
However, if you want to rip all videos, audio tracks, subtitles, etc. contained in a DVD and also maintain 1:1 original quality, you’d better convert DVD to MKV. Now we share with you 5 ways to rip DVD to MKV with high quality, including ripping DVD to MKV for free with HandBrake and other reliable software.
Cisdem Video Converter
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
Free Download macOS 10.13 or later
Store data permanently – Converting a DVD to digital files protects it from loss, scratches, or other accidental damage.
Remove DVD copy protection - Commercial DVDs are encrypted by DVD region codes, Disney X-project protection, APS, etc. Ripping DVD with professional programs can help you bypass copy protection.
More portable to watch DVD content - Digitizing DVD to computer, mobiles, or other devices, ensuring that you can view DVD movies anytime and anywhere.
1: 1 backup original content of the DVD – Ripping DVD to MKV can copy all DVD information including all titles, audio and video and subtitle tracks, chapter information metadata, etc.
Retain top-notch quality - MKV adopts higher resolution codecs than normal formats like MP4, so it is often used for HD movies or Bluray sources.
Cisdem Video Converter is the best professional app to rip DVD to MKV on Windows or Mac. It can convert DVD ISO images to MKV, DVD folders to MKV, and DVD discs to MKV. It supports HEVC encoding, making MKV take up less GB but delivering impeccable quality.
This best DVD to MKV converter is designed with the practical function of bypassing all copy encryption methods. Furthermore, Cisdem Video Converter is able to batch rip several files in the DVD, which will save you much time if you need to rip a 99-title DVD.
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 Free Download macOS 10.13 or later
Step 1. Go to the DVD ripping interface of the software.
When you open it, you will see 5 different icons on the top center of the interface, which stands for conversion, ripping, downloading, compressing and editing. Click the second icon to start ripping DVD to MKV.
Step 2. Upload DVD.
Insert a DVD into your computer, drag and drop the DVD icon into the program. Then, wait to parsing the DVD. After a while, it will show you with a list of single video thumbnail on the interface.
Step 3. Choose MKV as the output format.
Click the drop-down icon of “Convert all tasks to” at the bottom left corner, find “MKV” under the "Video" tab, and select a resolution option. I normally keep the same resolution as the source file.
Step 4. Select desired audio track and language (Optional).
Cisdem Video Converter will select a feasible audio track for you automatically. If you want to change it with you needs, you can click the audio track box to select a proper one.
Besides, if you want to rip DVD to MKV with subtitles, you are permitted to click the subtitles box to select a favorite language in the list.
Step 5. Edit the DVD file (Optional).
You can also click 
to edit the file before ripping, such as trimming, cropping, rotating the video, adding watermarks, adjusting effects and volume. When done, click “Save”.
Step 6. Rip DVD to MKV
At last, click the "Start" button to start the work. This process will show you how to rip all files at the same time and the progress of the work.
We’ve tested a large number of converters in the market and ended up selecting 3 excellent DVD to MKV converters for free. Read on for more details.
HandBrake is a free DVD to MKV converter for Windows, Mac and Linux. This free and open-source tool can also help you convert between some popular digital audio and video format. However, it only supports ripping DVDs without copy protection. Even if with the help of libdvdcss, it still can’t rip the DVD with secret code protection. And a high-configuration computer is needed to ensure conversion efficiency.
tips: But, it is not recommended to choose the high resolution because it won’t improve the video quality but will add more time to rip. Instead, you should choose the basic format you need, for example, you can choose H.264 MKV 480p30 for NTSC DVD and H.264 MKV 576P25 for PAL DVD.
As a free and open source multimedia player, VLC Media Player can also convert between some popular digital file formats and rip DVDs for free on all platforms. When you rip DVD to MKV with VLC in the normal way by clicking “File > Open disc”, you will find the answer is no! Through our test, we get a proper way to do it with VLC. But, in this way, you can only rip all files contained in the DVD one by one. If you want to know how to do it, please see the following specific steps.
tips: However, sometimes, ripping DVD to MKV with VLC may encounter some errors, such as the ripped video has only audio. To solve this issue, maybe you can rip DVD to MP4 or other VLC supported format at first and then convert the ripped file to MKV. Or if you don’t want to waste your time and effort, you’d better find another trustworthy tool.
MakeMKV is a preeminent tool to rip Blu-ray sources and DVDs to MKV, which is capable of decoding most copy encryption techniques. So it is widely used to help people to backup and convert all content from the DVD to the video including all audio, video and subtitle tracks, meta information and so on.
Meantime, it can check potential errors and delete the unmatched or defunct small part of the movies or features automatically when detecting the DVD. But this is not a completely free tool that is only free for 30 days.
FFmpeg is a command-line tool with the ability to encode and decode multimedia content, including ripping DVD to MKV. It only converts the VOB files in a DVD disc or folder to MKV, not the whole DVD disc or folder. You usually need to convert each video object file separately if your DVD disc or folder contains more than one VOB. But the good news is that it can rip entire DVD ISO to MKV.
After reading so much about ripping DVD to MKV, it is easy to get that free DVD to MKV converters have many drawbacks, even though they are free. Compared to professional converters, they are limited in ripping DVDs with top-level encryption, can only rip one file at a time, offer a relatively slow conversion speed, fail to rip the entire content of a DVD and more issues.
However, using a professional converter can handle these issues well. If you are eager to rip any DVDs into high-quality digital files with ease, a reliable converter is highly recommended.
Jenny is a technology editor who has been blogging since she was a student. Since joining Cisdem, she focuses on writing articles about video software and how-to guides. She loves exploring new tools and techniques.
